


Talk of Summertime

by Lady_FaE



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Found Family, Nobles and Nobility, Percy is still a nerd, Slow Burn, Some angst, The de Rolo's are alive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2019-10-03 03:04:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17275889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_FaE/pseuds/Lady_FaE
Summary: Lady Vex’ahlia Vessar of Singorn, ward and first daughter of House Vessar has known from her earliest memories that she is, intrinsically, fundamentally, expendable.





	1. Prelude

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where this AU came from honestly. It's a fusion of the canon world and some Victorian era themes and flavors thrown in because why not?  
> Thank you to everyone for reading! Enjoy!

  Lady Vex’ahlia Vessar of Singorn, ward and first daughter of House Vessar knows many things. She knows the genealogy of house Vessar to the forty-second generation, up to its founding more than twelve-hundred years ago. She knows what wine to pair with fish, how to ride a horse side-saddle, which fork to use for seafood and which for salad. She knows grace and etiquette, that a lady’s voice must never come above the gentle whisper of a bird’s wings.

  Vex also knows, has known from her earliest memories, that she is: intrinsically, fundamentally, expendable.

  


 

* * *

 

  


  “Come on, Stubby.” Vax sing-songs, his voice warbling comically between youthful falsetto and adult baritone as he dashes through the dense undergrowth. He’s got a few paces head start on her, but Vex is determined to catch up, ducking and weaving as quickly as she dares in the thick brambly foliage while the heat and humidity of the forest air paints her skin in thick rivulets; salty and stinging in her eyes.

  “You’re a dirty cheater.” She calls, petulant and breathless, the air in her lungs a burning weight. But still she pushes doggedly on, frustrated because she hasn’t hit her growth spurt quite yet and Vax is a whole head taller than she is. A fact he’s using to its fullest advantage.

  Vax just laughs at her blustering and pulls back a branch as he passes, releasing it at the perfect moment. It snaps back viciously, clawing and catching in Vex'ahlia's thick dark hair, scratching at her face and arms before she manages to fight free. She's off again, chasing after her twin. Vex lengthens her stride, pushing harder. Her chest on fire and there's a wicked stitch forming in her side, but she ignores it, furiously trying to make up the lost ground, even though she can already tell it’s too late.

   The trees are thinning, breaking into a wide glade with a large, crystal clear lake in it’s center. The waters gleam and refract brilliantly, an perfectly cut aquamarine gem blazing in the waning rays of the afternoon sun. With a whoop, Vax dashes for a large terrace of rock jutting a good distance out over the water, tossing his shirt aside as he leaps off of the end to cannonball into the placid waters. Vex is only seconds behind him.

  The water is cool and clear, somehow unsullied by the film of weeds and filth which inevitably builds up at the edges of all the ponds and rivers on their Father’s lands.

  Vex stays under the surface, eyes staring around the empty bed of their secret pond, marveling at the strangely symmetrical stones, the odd carvings in the sides, the fine grains of sand along the bottom, spread out in all directions like a sea of gold, sparkling in the gently dancing light filtered down from a surface that seems miles away. A whole other world.

  She stays until the nagging of her lungs grows urgently pressing and with a small pang of regret she kicks up to the surface, gulping mouthful after mouthful of warm late-summer air.

  “There you are, Stubby.” Vax’s face is half-joking, half-concerned. “I know you’re a sore loser, but I didn’t think you’d drown yourself for shame.”

  Vex spends the next hour reminding her brother that even though he may be taller, she was always the better swimmer and thoroughly and satisfactorily dunks him into submission.

  By the time they both crawl out onto the sandy shore, panting and exhausted, the sun is beginning to disappear over the treeline. The air bleeds cooler as the hours drag on, but still the twins lay, contented to soak in the last of summer before it’s put away for the cloying confines of winter; when they will be stuffed once again into the castle with lessons and tutors and books and nothing fun ever.

  “Father told me he was going to take me to counsel and court this season.” Vax says suddenly, sullenly, to the air.

  Vex jerks upright and stares down at her brother who refuses to meet her eyes, brow furrowed, glaring up at the sky.

  “He says it’s time I took on more responsibilities as heir. Instead of wasting all my time running about with you.” The last bit was said quietly, resigned, but Vex heard the apology in his tone as well as the resignation. She knows it’s pointless to argue. They both knew this was coming. It was inevitable after all that Vax would take on the role of heir apparent and inherit the title and lands and the responsibility which came with it.

  They couldn’t stay children forever.

  Vex feels cold settle itself in her stomach, a lump of coal she wishes she could reach in and pick out.

  She punches Vax’s arm.

  “Ow!” Vax shoots up, sitting and cradling his arm, looking gobsmacked.

  Vex punches his arm again.

  “I can’t believe you’re leaving me to deal with Stormwind on my own. I’m going to die of absolute boredom in lessons now.”

  Vax’s shock remains for a moment before it’s slowly replaced by a knowing grin.

  “Then maybe you should try learning something for a change, Stubby.”

  “Don’t be a tit.” Vex says imperiously, tossing her sopping wet braid behind her shoulder. “Everyone knows I’m the clever one.”

  Vax lays back to look at the sky that’s descending slowly towards sunset. He speaks to the wispy clouds overhead and his voice is once again soft, but less apologetic this time.

  “Yeah you are. Make all those pompous nobles heads spin when it’s your turn at court.”

  Vex lays herself adjacent to her brother, her head pillowed in the concave hollow of his stomach. He’s losing all of his soft edge to adulthood, another reminder of the thing they will never have back once this summer is behind them.

  “That won’t be for years.” Vex hums, trying to imagine herself four years from this moment, trussed up like a Winter’s Crest Goose, diamonds at her ears and throat, being presented by her father for the first time to a hundred nobles she won’t care about in the slightest. Preening and pretending and playing the airheaded heiress. All for the sake of catching herself a politically and monetarily advantageous match.

  It sounds absolutely revolting.

  Vax pokes her in the ribs. Vex squeals and wiggles a little further down until her head is pillowed on one of Vax’s skinny thighs. She’s still well within poking distance, but Vax doesn’t make another attempt at her sensitive sides.

  “That just means you have more time to practice.” Vax reasons. And Vex can’t disagree with that, so she doesn’t.

  “Will you introduce me?” She asks into the lapsed silence. Vax makes an inquisitive noise in response.

  “When it’s time for my coming out.” She clarifies.

  Vax’s reply is immediate and emphatic.

  “Just try to stop me, Stubby.”

  Vex laughs and feels a sharp sting at the corners of her eyes.

  “Thanks.” She whispers.

  Vax pokes her again and laughs when she squeaks.


	2. Chapter 2

   “I wish I could go to Emon.” Velora pouts and kicks her stocking-clad feet in the air. She’s got her face shoved petulantly into the rump of her stuffed owlbear, a gift she’d received from Vex and Vax when she was two and hadn’t put down since; despite both their father’s best efforts and having recently turned the respectable age of eight.

   “I never get to go anywhere.”

   Vex straightens from where she is bent over her trunks, in the midst of refolding a frilly set of pantaloons. She doesn’t care how much her step-mother grouses about ladies not packing their own trunks; Vex has never appreciated how Hillena packs her undergarments. Everything ends up squashed and wrinkled, and she’s half-convinced the woman does it on purpose. So she’ll risk her stepmother’s ire, not fidget uncomfortably at important social functions for her stockings riding uncomfortably in unfortunate places, and do it herself.

   Vex offers her half-sister as cheerful a smile as she can muster and bends to kiss her small head. Velora takes the affection and then pushes her head back into her owlbear’s mangy fur. She continues to pout, kicking her stocking clad feet in tiny temper.

   “If I thought I could fit you in my truck, I would, love.” Vex says truthfully, her smile evening out a little when her sister peeks one eye out to look at her.

   “Really?” Velora asks mournfully.

   “Really.” Vex assures her, flopping down on the bed to look Velora in the eye. She leans in and  whispers conspiratorially.

   “Do you want to know a secret?”

   Velora’s head shoots upright, her melancholy instantly forgotten. She scoots in closer, nodding eagerly.

   “I’d much rather spend the season here with you than with all of those stuffy nobles in Emon.” Vex confides.

   “But you get to go to parties and eat cake and stay up late and dance with Vax and get kissed by princes.” Velora replies mutinously, clearly not believing that Vex would ever want to miss the obviously wondrous adventures which awaited her in the nation’s capital city.

   “Kissed by princes, hm?” Vex hums slyly. “Have you been listening to Elise’s wild stories again?” The maid was infamous for having a rather...overactive imagination.

   Velora buries her head into her owlbear again, but Vex can see the sharp tips of her ears, peeping out from the dark strands of her hair and flushed bright red.

   “I haven’t.” Velora lies plaintively. Vex grins and plants another quick peck on her sister’s head before rolling off the bed to finish packing.

   “I really am sorry, darling. I don’t want to leave you. But father wouldn’t let me stay even if I were to beg him.”

   “I know.” Velora rolls onto her back, splayed out like a woebegone starfish. She stares mulishly up at the muralled ceiling, kicking her heels into the side of Vex’s mattress as though it were the source of all her current frustration.

   She arches her back to look at Vex upside down, her limpid brown eyes turned back to big and pleading and mooney.

   “But you promise you won’t kiss any princes if I’m not there?”

   Vex can’t catch the laugh that bubbles up. She quickly smothers her smile and nods and perches on the bed next to her sister, careful of the haphazard spread of dark curls on the coverlet.

   “I promise, Sweet.” She promises seriously. She doesn’t actually think there are any princes to be had in Eamon. “Furthermore, I promise not to dance with Vax, or eat any cake or have one single moment of fun the whole time I am there if it doesn’t please you.”

   “Really?” Velora asks.

   Vex bites her lip and nods, determined not to let loose the wild flush of giggles pressing at her sternum. “Really.”

   “Oh,” Velora seem to ponder something deeply before she sighs, resigned. “...but you should probably dance with Vax. Otherwise he might be lonely.”

   “Allright.” Vex agrees easily.

   “And it would be okay if you had  _ some _ cake. As long as you promised to save a piece for me.”

   “I promise.” Vex cards her fingers through Velora’s hair, combing out some of the worst of the tangles from the thick, silky mane.

   “The best I can find.”

   “Okay.” Velora still sounds sullen, but significantly less so than she did when she’d first come into Vex’s room to whine and grouse about being left behind.

   A slight knock curbs any further conversation. The door opens and Devanna glides regaly into the room.

   “Velora.” She calls softly. “Come. Atikus Stormwind is searching for you.”

   “But I don’t want to go to lessons.” Velora says, scrambling up to wrap her arms around Vex. “I wanted to say goodbye to Vex.”

   Unperturbed by her daughter’s pouting, Devanna folds her hands and shifts her expression into one of reason-ability.

   “Then say goodbye.”

   Velora makes a whining sound, but once it’s apparent her mother will not budge she sighs and pouts and squeezes Vex, mumbling a sullen ‘bye’ before shuffling off to Devanna, her head hung low. Devanna gives Vex a politely indifferent nod before turning away, guiding her wayward child out with a gentle hand on her head.

   Vex sighs and slumps back into her pillows when the door is closed again. Considering how most interactions with her father’s wife went, that had gone rather well. Devanna wasn’t the most vocal critic of the human element of Vex and Vax’s lineage, but her passive aggressive chuffs and sneers became rather tiresome after a time. Especially when it came to keeping her daughter away from ‘mongrel influences’.

   She’s probably just pleased to see the last of her husband’s tainted spawn out of the house, Vex muses and sighs again. And Vex is just as pleased to leave, if only to be out of her father’s heavy-handed sphere of influence.

   The only thing she’ll miss is Velora.

   Another knock sounds at the door. Her lady’s maid enters and bobs a quick courtesy.

   “M’lady, I was told to gather your trunks and pass along a message. Your father wishes to depart within the next hour.”

   “Thank you, Aymee.” Vex crosses to the windows. Far below, the courtyard is abuzz with activity. Servants bustle to and fro delivering parcels and luggage of various shapes, sizes and weights, trussing horses, or checking over axles, bridles and bits. Her carriage to Emon.

   Feeling suddenly nostalgic, Vex glances over to her maid and grins. “Within the next hour, eh?”

 

 

* * *

  
  
  


   The pond is as clear and cool and beckoning as it ever was when Vex steps from the woods and out into the wide clearing. She goes to it, toeing off her shoes and gathering her skirts to climb up the jumping rock.

   The sun beats down, a warm caress on the back of her neck and Vex settles down to dip her feet into the water. It soothes and tickles against the arches of her feet, a playful child, and Vex relaxes into the touch.

   It’s odd to think she’ll never see this place again if all goes well for her in Eamon. Once she marries...if she marries, she’ll go to live at her husband’s estate. It’s an odd conflagration of sadness and hope which mingles with this thought.

   Vex kicks up her foot just to watch the diamond sparkle of water droplets tumbling down like a curtain of precious stones to splash into the pond’s glimmering crystalline surface.

   Her mother had told her years and years ago, of a young serving girl who came to a pond such as this to stare into the mirror-like surface and wish for more. Her mother said that the girl was taken one day, by the spirit who dwelt in the pond, a fey prince beguiled by her beauty.

   “No kissing princes for me though.” Vex murmurs and kicks her foot up again, her smile bittersweet. She wonders if there will ever come a time when she does not feel saddened when she remembers her mother.

   “There you are, Stubby.” As suddenly as he wasn’t, Vax is there, plopping down next to Vex. Vex jumps and gasps and when Vax chuckles, jostles him roughly with her shoulder.

   “Prick.”

   Vax grins, not at all put off, and nudges her right back. “Don't let father here you talk that way.”

   “Oh he can frown all he wants.” Vex rolls her eyes. “I’ll be out of his hair soon enough.”

   Vax laughs. “Well, someone’s certainly confident in their charms.”

   “I didn’t mean…” Vex can feel the heat crawling up her neck. She nudges him again. “I didn’t mean it like that and you know it.”

   Vax shrugs. “What I know, is that it would be wise of you to keep that sort of attitude firmly at the fore. The people at court will eat you alive otherwise.”

   Vex glances over at her brother, searching for any trace of teasing, but there is none. She feels a shiver of uncertainty dance down her spine.

   Vax stands and offers her an arm, which he uses to pull her to her feet.

   “You have nothing to fear, Vex. I’ve been at court a full four years already and I can say with certainty, that you are quite ten times more man than any of those waffish nobles could ever dream of being.”

   Vex tucked her arm into the crook of Vax’s elbow as he led her down to her shoes.

   “Even the men?”

   Vax grinned. “Especially the men.”

 


End file.
